The Decemberists present "The Hazards Of Love".

I just got an email from The Decemberists, telling me about the release date for their next album, "The Hazards Of Love". (The band and I are pretty tight. So they email me every now and then, you know how it goes, right?) Anyways, Release Date? March 24th?

Here's the text of the email, in case they didn't happen to send it to you...

The Decemberists News |12.11.2008

Points of Order:
• The Hazards of Love gets a tracklist and a release date!
• Always a Bridesmaid: A Singles Series Vol. 3 available now!
• Tour merch now available at the online shop.

Adored Mailing List Recipients[1],

We Decemberists are pleased to announce that our forthcoming LP, The Hazards of Love, is, in the parlance of the industry, "in the can[2]". Four tumultuous months passed in the creation of the record, during which a new president was selected[3], 3 people associated with the band were married[4], birthdays too numerous to recount were celebrated and many tasty asada tacos from two of the vast array of taco trucks in the greater Portland east-side were consumed. And what do we have to show for it? Or at least that we can now reveal to you? A release date and a tracklist! As follows:

Release Date: March 24th[5] in the U.S. and March 23th[6] in the UK.[7]

Tracklist:

1. Prelude
2. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
3. A Bower Scene
4. Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
5. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
6. The Queen's Approach
7. Isn't it a Lovely Night?
8. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid
9. An Interlude
10. The Rake's Song
11. The Abduction of Margaret
12. The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing
13. Annan Water
14. Margaret in Captivity
15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)
16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)



Well, there it is.

The tracklist.

And it looks like there some Abducting, Some Revenge and Then Somebody Drowns. (By my record, this would be the third such incident of somebody drowning in a Decemberists song. What does this tell us? Not to go to the beach with The Decemberists.

I like that the tracklist for the upcoming album, might also serve as Chapter lists for some Victorian Novel. I like that they're clearly weaving a narrative through their songs. To my mind, that's much more interesting than, "Hey, here's a bunch of random songs thrown together, that we worked out in jam sessions in a studio!"

Looks like I'll be downloading an album from Itunes on March 24th, assuming that the nation hasn't fallen completely into anarchy, by then. I'd be super-pissed if this rapidly dissolving nation got in the way of my digital music habits.

Cheers all,
Mr.B